Hamish Fraser

Inquests & Public Inquiries

Hamish regularly appears at both Pre-inquest Review and Inquest hearings, including Article 2 Inquests, for healthcare providers, public bodies, and companies. Recent examples of Hamish’s work include:

• RT Inquest (Winchester Coroners’ Court, September 2023): week-long jury inquest arising out of the death of a lorry driver who was crushed due to the failure of a hydraulic-powered tail ramp to a trailer. Hamish represented the contractor who maintained and inspected the trailer. It was successfully shown that any defect in the trailer would not have been detectable on a reasonable inspection.
• PB Inquest (Woking Coroners’ Court, January 2023): Acting for council adult social services in relation to the death of a man with motor-neurone disease who was found to be malnourished. Despite a conclusion of neglect in the council’s own Section 42 safeguarding report, the Coroner accepted Hamish’s submissions distinguishing the test for neglect in a Section 42 report and for a finding in a Coroners’ Court. No finding of neglect was accordingly made.
• KB Inquest (Reading Coroners’ Court, January 2023): Acting for the care home in relation to the death of a resident who had developed aspiration pneumonia after PEG feeding.
• LB Inquest (Woking Coroners’ Court, December 2022): Acting for a council-run supported housing provider after the death of a resident by drug overdose.
• Preparing written submissions to the coroner in relation to whether the procedural obligation under Article 2 was triggered. The inquest concerned a mentally ill man who had died whilst being restrained by security guards after he had started assaulting members of the public (as a pupil).

Selected Cases

News

• Daniel Shapiro KC and Hamish Fraser act for the successful Defendant in a Commercial Court trial brought against a firm of insurance brokers.
• Daniel Shapiro KC, Caroline McColgan and Hamish Fraser acted for the successful Insurers in the first warranty & indemnity insurance claim to be decided by the Commercial Court

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Articles

• Defending W&I claims: strategic themes illustrated in Finsbury Foods v Axis & Ors
• ClientEarth v Shell: High Court refuses permission for novel climate change action to be brought by ClientEarth against the directors of Shell Plc

Qualifications

• BPTC (Outstanding), BPP
• GDL (Distinction), City University
• English Language & Literature (First Class), University of Oxford,

Awards

• Buchanan Prize for outstanding performance on the BPTC (Lincoln’s Inn, 2020)
• Advocacy Scholarship (BPP, 2019)
• Tancred Scholarship (Lincoln’s Inn, 2019)
• Winner, the Crowther Shield for public speaking (Lincoln’s Inn, 2019)
• Winner, the Crown Office Mooting Competition (2018)
• The Janet Quigley Prize for Middle English studies (Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, 2016)